Industrial Loft, City of London

A new home awaits my client, a Professor of Visual Cultures, and her art and book collection, which, together with her many visiting friends, will help animate this space.

We transformed a poorly developed and graceless “rental flat” on the edge of the City of London by reinstating its lost character.  An unimaginative 1990’s interior was transformed in sympathy with the archaeology of this former industrial warehouse. Heroic early 20th century structure, brick pilasters, and original surface components are presented to the eye, making manifest the underlying character of the space.

This restoration now expands the sense of space—as well as the physical volume— made luminous with suffusion of light from two large windows.

The original structure soars across an expanded area, defined by original flanking walls. A low partition mediates use of the space. Monumental column-fragments distinguish the entrance, as well as the main space, as if to offer a machine-age trace of a Temple to Goddess Athena.